College = Employment

Groans and whining; that’s all I heard while listening to my previous student describe her experience at a student job fair:

“It was the same old, same old.  I pitched the same monologue over and over while shaking the hands of local employers in hopes that I land a job after graduation.  Why do I have to work so hard for only a few potential jobs?  It seems like someone should have invented a more efficient way for students to land a cool job by now… isn’t this the 21^st century?”

Looking at her with amusement, I shook my head in agreement before replying, “Check out Presentfull.com”.

You see, until now, colleges and universities have used traditional, localized methods to introduce students to the workforce.  It has been a difficult task that requires significant time, staffing, and institutional resources.  Many postsecondary institutions cannot afford student employment resources which leave students to experiment with employment challenges alone.  Fortunately, higher education can now use social media to achieve our instiutional mission faster and more efficiently.

Presentfull.com offers a more effective approach to increase student employment rates.  If enrolled in college, a student can create a free profile to market themselves and apply for internships, part-time, and full-time jobs.  Presentfull’s international student employment website has officially launched this month in the United States. I suggest that students, higher education, and the business sector explore its usefulness.

Think about it…no more door-to-door, hope to get an interview, inefficient employment plans.  You now have the freedom to brand yourself as a qualified professional from the comfort of your own home.   Presentfull.com is a new resource for college students to introduce themselves, develop and promote their resume, network with local and international companies, and apply for jobs all on one website.  Did I mention it’s free?!

How can your business benefit from having a free profile on Presentfull.com?  How can college students benefit from marketing their skills and applying to jobs all around the world? How can professors use Presentfull to increase student engagement and learning? And lastly, how can higher education benefit from using Presentfull's resources?

• Business Benefits- Open access to qualified college students interested in internships, part-time jobs, and full-time careers at your company.
• College Student Benefits- Increase professional network of potential employers and business partners, apply for internships, part-time jobs, and full-time careers on a local level and international level, and engage with other students and college professors.
• Professor Benefits- Familiarize yourself with students, create a free class discussion forum, introduce your students to open job opportunities that correspond with your course topic, and invite business professionals to speak to your class as guest experts.
• Higher Education Benefits- Free and streamlined student career planning: resume/CV development, Video Resume development, Cover Letter/Letter of Interest development, application station, mentor and network center.

Check out Presentfull.com for yourself by creating a free profile. Let me know what you think.

Also, congratulations to all 2012 graduating college students and incoming fall senior college students. I hope the Presentfull.com resource helps you get the job/internship that makes you very happy and successful. Good luck. -Tara

I wish…

A young woman from Florida named Elise wrote me last week and asked, “Because I don’t have an overwhelming passion for only one thing and I don't have a personal brand, how can I become a more valued and important professional in my workplace?” Most likely, there are many opinions and recommendations for Elise about this subject but I will respond by answering, “listen for I WISH statements”.  “I WISH” statements are another way of saying, “here is a need and it is an opportunity for someone to create a solution”. Purpose and value are often determined by the ability to satisfy a need and "I WISH" statements can identify those needs.

Examples include: -“I WISH my child had a mentor”. Solution: Dean’s Future Scholars

-“I WISH teachers had it better, I’d become one”. Solution: To Teach or Not to Teach

-“I WISH I knew more about blogs and how blogging can help me become a better writer” Solution: 6 Ways Blogging helps writers

-“I WISH I was more nationally recognized in Higher Education”. Solution: The Social Network Equation  Social Business in Higher Education: Increasing Faculty Competitiveness  Connecting the dots: Increasing competitiveness and leadership

-“I WISH we could study abroad”. Solution: USAC Increases Student Competitiveness

-“I WISH I didn’t have to drive all the way to Carson City in order to attend a Nevada Legislature meeting” Solution: Knowing the Politics behind your Success

-“I WISH I had more publications to put on my curriculum vitae”. Solution: Cross-disciplinary student initiated collaboration  Publish or Perish

“I WISH my son or daughter could do something extra to be more successful in college” Solution: Sticky Campus

“I WISH I had someone to talk to about becoming more competitive” Dr Tara Madden-Dent

These I WISH statements came from people in my life.  I responded to them by addressing the need and creating a solution or recommendation.  If I can’t solve their I WISH statement, I introduce them to other resources that can.  Either way, I contributing to others and creating progress within my industry.

Listen for I WISH statements in your life. These are moments when you can be of value and satisfy a need; thus becoming more productive and essential in the workplace.  Being proactive and taking initiative reflects creative ambition and selflessness: two very respected and rare qualities in today's workforce.  If you can’t resolve a need by yourself, search for other resources or work in partnership with other professionals. You’re ability to contribute to society, create change, and see your efforts manifest into solutions will inspire your passion through feelings of being useful and productive.  Creating solutions for I WISH statements can add professional value to yourself and your business.

Please let me know Elise after you address an I WISH statement in the workplace and how it impacted your role as a professional. Thanks for the email; I wish you great success.

Course Curriculum + Social Media = Social Curriculum

Some of the most interesting and beneficial college courses that I have instructed or have taken, included some form of interactive discussion using social media.  If fact, many colleges and universities host a campus web service providing classroom discussion forums and student chat rooms.  I believe this is an effective instructional tool but it is also limited. If classroom discussion was available on social media platforms, curriculum topics could include global perspectives and experiences.  Yes, some course material is more sensitive and should be held within the course web service, but other topics could simply contribute greater social benefit and a more robust learning experience. For example, I often invite guest speakers to visit my course and interact with my students.  Not only do my students gain from the guest speaker’s contributions, but through their interaction and discussion, the guest speaker benefits as well. Many times I have been told that the college student perspective has led to a change or update in the guest speaker’s profession.  For instance, during one of my law and ethics courses, our guest speaker who is a State Senator said that their engagement with my students was a good opportunity to interact with their local constituents and had gained from my student’s opinions, experiences, and perspectives about legislative issues.  In fact, the Senator was also inspired to try a new direction with a campaign strategy.

This got me thinking, if interaction between my guest speakers and my students was so beneficial for all involved, how could I promote these benefits on a larger scale?  How could I encourage a more effective partnership between my students and other resources outside of academia? What I have begun to practice and what I recommend other faculty to investigate is the use of Social Curriculum.  Social Curriculum is a web-based interactive learning environment used for course assignments. Twitter and blogging are two specific Social Curriculum tools that stimulate interactive discussion, build professional networks, and prepare our students as responsible digital citizens. One instructional tool that faculty can use includes a Twitter hashtab for a Tweetchat.  This application is free and provides a forum for real-time conversation that can connect guest speaker(s) to students.  It provides a forum for interactive, current, and ongoing discussions.

Another example of Social Curriculum includes the use of Blogging.  This social forum provides students an outlet to creatively express their responses to course topics either on their own blog website or on a course blog website.  This helps to engage student interest while making connections between course content and practical application. It also allows students to gain from other professionals and scholars in their discipline. In the very least, regardless of the course subject, faculty will be encouraging responsible social business skills.  As we develop Social Curriculum, faculty are preparing students to be responsible digital citizens in a social media culture.